Stranger asking for help, unsure of the species

[Briggan]

Hi there!

today I was contacted by one of my followers on Instagram asking for fish keeping advice..which is new.
He is a bird breeder, so he is new to keeping fish. He asked me some basic questions first(how and when to change water, what he should include in an aquarium)which I answered, though he never stated what he was trying to keep so I asked him. He asked in reply, “can I keep river fish?”. I asked him if he knew the name of the fish or if he had a picture. He stated that it was a common fish in his city in Pakistan but he did not know the name so he sent a google image screenshot. From what I could gather, it’s some type of pomfret fish, the kind you eat...

Does anybody know about keeping these kinds of fish in captivity? I’m not really sure what to tell him at this point. Any help is appreciated, thanks!

 

[Lajos_Detari]

Actually, any fish can be kept as long as he can create the same water parameter(GH, pH, KH) as the water parameter where they are in the wild.
Since the fish is from the local city, he should be able to keep them easily.

Just ensure that he has aquarium that is big enough, with filters and making water change every week and the fish should be fine.
But for his aquarium to properly cycle and have enough beneficial bacteria(BB), it may need 3-4 weeks.
During this 3-4 weeks, he should cut down on feeding probably once every 2-3 days or 2-3 times per week since his filter doesn't have enough BB at the beginning.
Tell him to read some articles about the aquarium cycle.

But take note that most wild caught fish carry parasites/pathogens/bacteria with them.
He might want to use salt to treat the fish for the first 3 weeks.
He can use 1 tablespoon of salt for every 10 liter of water.

He can calculate the size of his aquarium by using this formula:
Tank size in liter = (Length X Width X Height in cm )/1000

Lastly, make sure the fish is from freshwater and not from sea/salt water.
For salt water fish, he will need to buy salt if he use tap water for his tank.
Alternatively, he can collect the sea water for his tank instead of buying salt.